"As for me," continued Amber, "I suspect I"m the most hopeless a.s.s in the three Presidencies, if that"s any comfort to you, Salig Singh. Now what d"you want with me?"
A shadowy smile softened the blackness of the Rajput"s wrath. He shrugged and moved his hands slightly, exposing their palms, subtly signifying his submission.
"Thou art my overlord," he said quietly, with a silky deference. "In time thou wilt see how thou hast wronged me. For the present, I remain thy servant. I harbour no resentment, I owe thee naught but loyalty. I await thy commands."
"The d.i.c.kens you do!" Amber whistled inaudibly, his eyes narrowing as he pondered the man. "You protest a lot, Salig Singh. If you"re so much at my service ... why, prove it."
By way of reply Salig Singh lifted his sword in its scabbard from its fastenings at his side and, with a magnificent gesture, cast it clanking to the floor between them. A heavy English army-pattern revolver followed it. The Rajput spread out his hands. "Thou art armed, my lord," he said, "I, at thy mercy. If thou dost misjudge my purpose in causing thee to be brought hither, my life is in thy hands."
"Oh, yes." Amber nodded. "That"s very pretty. But presuming I chose to take it?"
"Thou art free as the winds of the morning. See, then." Salig Singh strode to the outer door and threw it open. "The way of escape is clear--not even locked."
The lamplight fell across the stone landing and made visible the waiting boat with Dulla Dad sitting patiently at the oar.
"I see," a.s.sented Amber. "Well?"
Salig Singh shut the door gently. "Is there more to say?" he enquired.
"I have shown thee that thou art free."
"Oh, so far as that goes, you"ve demonstrated pretty clearly that you"re not afraid of me. Of course I know as well as you do that at the first shot Dulla Dad would slip out to the lake and leave me here to die like a rat in a corner."
"Thou knowest, lord, that no man in Khandawar would do thee any hurt.
Thy person is sacred--"
"That"s all bosh. You don"t expect me to believe that you still stick to that absurd fiction of yours--that I"m Rutton?"
"Then mine eyes have played me false, hazoor. Shabash!" Salig Singh bowed resignedly.
"Well, then, what do you want? Why have you brought me here?"
"Why didst thou come? There was no force used: thou didst come of thine own will--thine own will, which is the will of the Body, hazoor!"
"Oh, d.a.m.nation! Why d"you insist on beating round the bush forever? You know well why I came. Now, what do you want?"
"My lord, I move, it seems, in the ways of error. A little time ago the words of the Voice were made known to thee in a far land; thou didst answer, coming to this country. A few days agone I myself did repeat to you the message of the Bell; thou didst swear thou wouldst not answer, yet art thou here in Kuttarpur. Am I to be blamed for taking this for a sign of thy repentance?... Hazoor, the Body is patient, the Will benignant and long-suffering. Still is the Gateway open."
"Is that what you wanted to tell me, Salig Singh?"
"What else? Am I to believe thee a madman, weary of life, that thou shouldst venture hither with a heart hardened against the Will of the Body? I seek but to serve thee in thus daring thy displeasure. Why shouldst thou come to Bharuta [Footnote: India.] at all if thou dost not intend to undergo the Ordeal of the Gateway? Am I a fool or--I say it in all respect, my lord--art thou?"
"From the look of things, I fancy the epithet fits us both, Salig Singh. You refuse to take my word for it that I know nothing of your infamous Gateway and have no intention of ever approaching it, that I have not a drop of Indian blood in me and am in no way related to or connected with Har Dyal Rutton, who is dead--"
"I may not believe what I know to be untrue."
"You"ll have to learn to recognise the truth, I"m afraid. For the final time I tell you that I am David Amber, a citizen of the United States of America, travelling in India on purely personal business."
The Rajput inclined his head submissively. "Then is my duty all but done, hazoor. Thrice hath the warning been given thee. There be still four-and-twenty hours in which, it may be, thou shalt learn to see clearly. My lord, I ask of thee a single favour. Wilt thou follow me?"
He motioned toward the arched entrance to the pa.s.sageway.
"Follow thee?" Amber at length dropped into Urdu, unconsciously adopting the easier form of communication now that, he felt, the issue between them was plain, that the Rajput laboured under no further misunderstanding as to the reason of his presence in Khandawar.
"Whither?"
"There is that which I must show thee."
"What?"
"My life be forfeit if thou dost not return unharmed to the rest-house ere sunrise. Wilt thou come?"
"To what end, Salig Singh?"
"Furthermore," the Rajput persisted stubbornly, his head lifted in pride and his nostrils dilated a little with scorn--"furthermore I offer thee the word of a Rajput. Thou are my guest, since thou wilt have it so. No harm shall come to thee, upon my honour."
Curiosity triumphed. Amber knew that he had exacted the most honoured pledge known in Rajputana. His apprehensions were at rest; nothing could touch him now--_until_ he had returned to the bungalow. Then, he divined, it was to be open war--himself and Labertouche pitted against the strength of the greatest conspiracy known in India since the days of "57. But for the present, no pledge of any sort had been exacted of him.
"So be it," he a.s.sented on impulse. "I follow."
With no other word Salig Singh turned and strode down the corridor.
CHAPTER XV
FROM A HIGH PLACE
The pa.s.sageway was long and dark and given to sudden curves and angles, penetrating, it seemed, the very bowels of the Raj Mahal. It ended unexpectedly in a low arch through which the two men pa.s.sed into an open courtyard, apparently given over entirely to stables. Despite the lateness of the hour it was tenanted by several wideawake syces, dancing attendance upon a pair of blooded stallions of the stud royal, who, saddled, bridled and hooded, pawed and champed impatiently in the centre of the yard, making it echo with the ringing of iron on stone and the jingling of their silver curb-chains.
Salig Singh paused, with a wave of his hand calling Amber"s attention to the superb brutes.
"Thou canst see, hazoor, that all is prepared!"
"For what?"
But Salig Singh merely smiled enigmatically, and shaking a patient head, pa.s.sed on.
A second arch gave upon a corridor which led upwards and presently changed into a steep flight of steps, of ancient stone worn smooth and grooved with the traffic of generations of naked feet. At the top they turned aside and pa.s.sed through a deserted hanging garden, and then, through a heavy door which Salig Singh unlocked with a private key, into a vast, vacant room, with a lofty ceiling supported by huge, unwieldy pillars of stone, sculptured with all the loves and wars of Hindu mythology. At one end the fitful, eerie flare of a great bronze brazier revealed the huge proportions of an ivory throne, gorgeous with gems and cloth of gold, standing upon a das and flanked by two motionless figures which at first sight Amber took to be pieces of statuary. But they quickened, saluting with a single movement and a flash of steel, as the Maharana drew nearer, and so proved themselves troopers of the State, standing guard with naked swords.
"There is no need, perhaps, to tell thee, hazoor," Salig Singh muttered, bending to Amber"s ear, "that sitting upon this throne, in this Hall of Audience, for generations thy forefathers ruled this land, making and administering its laws, meting out justice, honoured of all men--and served, my lord, for generations by my forebears, the faithful stewards of thy House; even as I would prove faithful...."
"Interesting," Amber interrupted brusquely, "if true. Is this what you wanted to show me?"
"Nay, hazoor, not this alone. Come."
The Rajput led him out of the hall by way of a small doorway behind the throne, and after a little turning and twisting through tortuous pa.s.sages they began to ascend again, and so went on up, ever upwards, the flights of steps broken by other corridors, other apartments, other galleries and gardens, until at length they emerged into a garden laid out in the very topmost court of all--the loftiest spot in all Kuttarpur.
It was a very wonderful garden, a jungle of exotic plants and shrubs threaded by narrow walks that led to secluded nooks and unsuspected pleasaunces, and lighted by low-swung festoons of dim lamps, many-coloured. A banian grew curiously in its midst, and there also they found a great tank of crystal water with a bed of brilliant pebbles over which small golden gleaming fish flashed and loitered.